Knights 20th in Final Golf World Poll of Fall Season

NORTHFIELD, Minn.—Carleton College is ranked 20th in the final Golf World/Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s Division III coaches poll of the fall season.

The Knights are one of three ranked conference schools, as University of St. Thomas is 14th and Gustavus Adolphus College sits 18th.

The Knights, who finished second by one shot at the MIAC Championships in October, are also ranked second in the initial NCAA Midwest Region rankings. The NCAA rankings are used to select teams to the NCAA Championships after the conclusion of the spring season.

Carleton recorded a trio of runner-up finishes in the fall season, its best fall in school history . They placed second at the Georgianni Memorial Invitational, posting a final-round 322 for the low team score of the day, but fell two shots shy of University of St. Thomas. Two weeks later the Knights finished second again to St. Thomas at the Division 3 Classic, nearly overcoming a nine-shot deficit. At the conference tournament, the Knights placed four players inside the top 10, setting a new 54-hole school record with a 954 team total over 54 holes, but were edged by the Tommies by a single shot. Shannon Holden (Fy./Simi Valley, Calif./Royal) earned the MIAC’s individual title with a winning score of 13-over par 229, a new school record and the third-lowest total ever at the conference tournament. Junior Kelsey Moede (Lake Oswego, Ore.) finished sixth at 239, while Grace Gilmore (So./Edina, Minn.) and Geraldine Tellbuescher (Fy./Ashiya, Japan/Canadian Academy) ended up seventh and T10th, respectively. All four players earned all-tournament team honors and automatically earn All-MIAC honors when those are announced this spring.

The Knights, who have a realistic shot at a Pool C bid to next spring’s NCAA Championships, open the spring season with two major events.

The first is the UC-Santa Cruz Invitational, held at Pacific Grove Golf Links, on March 29-30, where the Knights are scheduled to see No. 9 Redlands (Calif.), 21st-ranked Wittenberg (Ohio) and host UC-Santa Cruz. The next weekend Carleton will head to the Washington University (St. Louis) Invitational on April 5-6, facing a that is slated to include the second-ranked and tournament host Bears, No. 5 DePauw (Ind.), No. 8 Rhodes (Tenn.), No. 10 Olivet (Mich.), and No. 19 Carthage (Wis.), No. 21 Wittenberg and No. 24 UW-Stout.

Carleton will also welcome two-time All-MIAC and all-region player Taylor Wells (Jr./Rochester, Minn./Century) back after she missed the fall season while on a study abroad experience in Namibia.